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   Tiffany (tiffany@disabled.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:36:55 JST Tiffany

   I am thinking about autism this morning. Every self-assessment I’ve taken since I was a teenager scores ‘yep, that’s you’. (I have taken a LOT of self-assessments. Every few years I’ll go through a whole bunch, just to confirm.) But I don’t have a formal diagnosis. And even though I would never require a formal diagnosis from anyone else, I have still, for decades, struggled to know whether I’m ‘allowed’ to understand myself in this way or speak about myself as #autistic.

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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:36:47 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Joseph Riparian 🏳️‍⚧️
     • Stacey Cornelius

     @StaceyCornelius I wonder if that psychologist heard about the "S" in "ASD". 🙃

     @holyramenempire @Tiffany

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     Stacey Cornelius (staceycornelius@mstdn.ca)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:36:48 JST Stacey Cornelius

     in reply to

     • Joseph Riparian 🏳️‍⚧️

     @holyramenempire @Tiffany Tiffany I saw part of this discussion boosted, so FWIW I once asked a psychologist about being on the spectrum.

     "You can make eye contact so you're not autistic."

     (Um.)

     The whole "official" thing can be problematic, at best. What Joseph said is so smart, and it sounds like you know exactly what's going on. xo

     clacke likes this.
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     Joseph Riparian 🏳️‍⚧️ (holyramenempire@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:36:49 JST Joseph Riparian 🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     @Tiffany If you think you're autistic, you're probably autistic.

     If you and other autistic people think you're autistic, I think that's more valid than a non-autistic doctor diagnosing you. It's not like their criteria were written by an autistic person, anyway, so how would they know?

     #ActuallyAutistic

     clacke likes this.
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     Tiffany (tiffany@disabled.social)'s status on Tuesday, 07-Nov-2023 10:36:55 JST Tiffany

     in reply to

     On mornings like this when I’m melancholy and feeling lonely (and this question of whether I’m allowed to know myself as autistic and use this language for myself and be in the community rather than just advocating for the community as an outsider… this question is having me feel like I’ll always be lonely). Anyway, on mornings like this I feel a bit sad and uncertain about everything. And I just want to know the right answer.